1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source determining apparatus for determining the type of a photographic light source so as to improve photographic results regardless of the type of camera used, such as a still or movie video camera or a silver salt camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is conventional that a video camera has a colorimetric sensor for providing white balance. Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-53327 discloses a technique that in a silver salt camera, a light source is detected, and the detected information is recorded on a film so as to automate or simplify classification of negatives during printing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,196 discloses a method of recording photographic information corresponding to each photographic frame on the transparent magnetic layer coated on the film base side.
In the above conventional light source detection techniques, it is assumed that a light source is composed of a single color. These techniques employ a single colorimetric sensor or an imaging device. On the other hand, under the condition in which different light sources are mixed, for example, when a fluorescent lamp is used for artificial lighting, in combination with natural light, i.e., daylight, streaming through a window, a dominating light source at a camera position or in a camera angle of view is frequently different from a light source illuminating a main object to be photographed. In this case, the conventional techniques have the drawback that the color of the main object cannot be satisfactorily reproduced.